The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-11
HENRY MORGAN.
The Famous Buccaneer of the Six
tenth Century,
From Harper's Magazine.


name even to this day is a charm tc call up
his deeds of daring, his dauntleSs courage,
his truculent cruelty, ana bis insatiate and
unappeasable lust for gold, was Capt Henry
Morgan, the bold Welchman, who brought
buccaneering to the height and flower of its
glory Having sold himself, after the man.
ner of the times, for his passage across the
seas, he worked out his time of servitude at
the Barbados. As soon as he had regained
his liberty he entered upon the trade of
piracy, wherein he soon reached position of
considerable prominence.
The first attempt that Capt. Henry Nor
gan ever made against any town in the
Spanish Indies was the bold descent upon
the City Of Puerto Principe, in the island
of Cuba, with mere handful of men. 1t
was deed the boldness of which has never
been outdone by any of like nature-not
even the famous attack upon Panama it
self. There they returned to their boats in
the very face of the whole Island of Cuba,
aroused and determined upon their exter-
mination. Not only did they make good
their escape, but they brought away with
them vast amount of plumber, computed
at 100000 pieces of eight, besides 500 head
OF cattle and many prisoners held for ran
som.
But when the division of all the wealth
came to be made, 10! there were only fifty
Thousand pieces of eight to be found. What
had become of the rest no man could tell but
Capt Henry Morgan himself. Honesty
among thieves was never all axiom with
him. Rude, truculent and dishonest, as
Capt, Morgan was, he seems to have had
wonderful power of persuading the wild
buccaneers under him to submit everything
to his Judgment, and to rely entirely upon
his word. In spite of the vast sum OF money
that he had very evidently made away with,
recruits poured in upon him until his band
was larger and better equipped than ever.
The next towns to snffer were poor
Maracaybo and Gibraltar, now Just begin
ming to recover from the desolatlon wrought
by IOlonoise. Once more both towns were
plundered of every bale of merchandise and
of every plaster, and once more both were
ransomed until everything was squeezed
from the wretched inhabitants. Here af
fairs were like to have turn for when
Capt, Morgan came up from Gibraltar he
found three great men-of-war lying in the
entrance to the lake awaiting his coming.
Seeing that he was hemmed in in the mar
row sheet of water, Capt. Morgan was in
cl1ned to compromise matters, even Offering
to relinquish all the plumber he had gained
If he were allowed to depart in peace. But
no; the Spanish Admiral would hear moth
ing of this, Having the pirates, as he
thought, securely in his grasp, he would re-
linqush nothing, but would sweep them
That was an unlucky discrimination for
the Spaniards to reach, for instead of para
lying the pirates with fear, as he expected
1T would do, it simply turned their mad
courage into as mad desperation. A great
vessel that they had taken with the town of
Maracaybo was converted into a fire ship
manned with logs of wood in mOntera caps
and sailor jackets and filed with birthstone.
pitch and palm leaves soaked in oil. Then
out of the lake the pirates sailed to meet the
Spaniards, the fire ship leading the way and
bearing down directly upon the Admiral's
vessel. At the helm stood volunteers, the
most desperate and the braveSt of all the
pirate gang, and at the ports stood the logs
of wood in montera caps. So they came up
with the Admiral and grappled with his ship
in spite OF the thunder of all his great guns,
and then the Spaniard saw, all too late,
what his opponent really was.
He tried to swing loose, but clouds of
smoke and almost instantly mass of roar
ing flames enveloped both vessels, and the
Admiral was lost. The second vessel, not
wishing to wait for the coming of the
pirates, bore down upon the fort, under the
guns of which the cowardly crew sank her,
and made the best of their way TO shore.
The third vessel, not having an opportunity
to escape, was taken by the pirates without
the slightest resistance, and the passage
from the lake was cleared. So the buc-
cancers sailed away, leaving Maracaybo
and Gibraltar PROSTATE second time.
And now Capt. Morgan determined to
undertake another venture the like of
which had never been equaled in all the
annals of buccaneering. This was nothing
less than the descent upon and the capture
of Panama, which was, next to Cartagena,
perhaps, the most powerful and strongly
fortified city in the West Indies. Down
they poured upon Panama, and out came
the Spaniards to meet them-400 horse,
2 800 foot and 1900 wild bulls which had
been herded together to be driven over the
buccaneers so that their ranks might be
disordered and broken. The buccaneers
were only 800 strong; the others had
either fallen i'll battle or had
dropped along the dreary pathway
through the wilderness; but in
the space of two hours the Spanards were
flying madly over the plains, minus 600 who
lay dead or dying behind them. As for the
bulls as many OF them as were shot served
as food there and then for the half-famished
pirates, for the buccaneers were never more
at home than in the slaughter of cattle
Then they marched toward the city. Three
hours more fighting and they were in the
streets, bowling, yelling, plundering, gorg
ing, dram-drinking, and giving full vent to
all the vile and naIne!ess IustS that burned
in their hearts like a hell of fire. And now
followed the usual sequence of events
rapine, cruelty and extortion; only this
time there was no town to ransom, for
Morgan had given orders that it
should be destroyed. The torch was
set to it, and Panama, one of the
greatest cities in the New World, was
swept from the face OF the earth. Why the
deed was done no man but Morgan could
fell Perhaps it was that all the secret
hiding places for treasure might be brought
to light; but whatever the reason was it lay
hidden in the breast Of the great buccaneer
himself. For three weeks Morgan and his
men abided in this dreadful place; then they
marched away with l75 beasts of burden
loaded with treasures of gold and silver and
jewels, besides great quantities of merchan-
disc, and 800 prisoners held for ransom.
Whatever became of ell that vast wealth,
and what it amounted to, no man but Nor
gan ever knew, for when a division was
made it was found that there was only 200
pieces of eight to each man.
When this dividend was declared howl
of execration went up, under which even
Capt Henry Morgan quailed. AT night he
and four other commanders slipped their
cables and ran out to sea, and it was said
that these divided the greater part of the
booty among themselves. But the wealth
plundered at Panama could hardly have
fallen short of 81 ,5O00 900. Computing il at
this reasonable figure, the various prizes
won by Henry Morgan in the West Indies
would stand as follows: Panama, 81, 800
ono, Porto RicO SSOO 900. pnerto del Priu